1. The document discusses chirality, or handedness, and how it appears in various areas of science including mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, and crystallography. 2. Chirality is the lack of mirror symmetry and occurs when objects are non-superimposable on their mirror image. Enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other, are examples of chiral objects. 3. Chirality is present in many everyday objects like hands and shoes, as well as phenomena like spiral galaxies and hurricanes. In science, chirality appears in areas like amino acids, sugars, crystals, and molecular structures with asymmetric carbon atoms.

1. Fun chirality
Ph.D. Ksenia Kozlovskaya
Moscow State University
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2. 1. Chirality - WTF?
2. Chirality in everyday life.
3. Chirality in science:
3.1 Math
3.2 Astronomy
3.3 Chemistry
3.4 Biology
3.5 Crystallography
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3. Chirality is the lack of right-left
symmetry.
Chiral objects has no mirror
planes.
Enantiomers (optical isomers)
are chiral objects that are
mirror images of one another.
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1. Chirality - WTF?
(с) http://physicsworld.com/

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2. Enantiomers in everyday life.
There are right
and left ways to tie
a simple knot.
Our hands, shoes
and ears are
enantiomers.
Architects like to
create buildings-
enantiomers.

5. 5
2. Chirality in the everyday life.
That is the enantiomer for this car?

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2. Chirality in the everyday life.
In a sense, left and right-hand drive cars are enantiomers.

7. Spinning top is a symmetrical object moving on the
asymmetrical helix path.
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2. Chirality in everyday life.

8. Spinning top is a symmetrical object moving on the
asymmetrical helix path.
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2. Chirality in everyday life.

9. Fan blades are cut from the helical surface. That happens if
you replace them with mirror blades?
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2. Chirality in everyday life.

10. Fan blades are cut from the helical surface. If you replace
them with mirror blades, the fan will turn into a vacuum
cleaner.
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2. Chirality in everyday life.

11. 1. Chirality - WTF?
2. Chirality in everyday life.
3. Chirality in science:
3.1 Math
3.2 Astronomy
3.3 Chemistry
3.4 Biology
3.5 Crystallography
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3.1 Chirality in mathematics.
If objects are chiral in a space of n dimensions, they
can be combined in a space of n+1 dimensions.

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics
and literature.
Gottfrieb Plattner got into 4-
dimentional world, and after
return he discovers that he is
now left-handed, and his
internal anatomy has
apparently inverted left and
right.

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3.1 Chirality in
mathematics.
Spirals
If you've seen something
in mathematics, most
likely you’ll find it in a real
world.

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3.1 Chirality in
mathematics.
2D Spirals
Are the galaxies chiral?

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3.1 Chirality in mathematics. 3D Spirals
© http://blog.atlasrfidstore.com/
Right and Left circular polarized waves are enantiomers.

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3.1 Chirality in
mathematics. 3D Spirals
Like humans, snails can be right-
handed and left-handed.

18. 1. Chirality - WTF?
2. Chirality in everyday life.
3. Chirality in science:
3.1 Math
3.2 Astronomy
3.3 Chemistry
3.4 Biology
3.5 Crystallography
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19. The Sun is a sphere. It’s symmetrical.
The Sun is rotating sphere, but rotating
sphere is still symmetrical
But Sun is rotating sphere with magnetic
moment! And it made sun chiral.
Sometimes the Sun's magnetic axis
changes direction, and Sun turns into its
own enantiomer.
N
S
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3.1 Chirality in mathematics and astronomy

20. The Earth’s shape called
Geoid. Geoid is chiral.
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3.2 Chirality in
Astronomy. The Earth

21. 1. Chirality - WTF?
2. Chirality in everyday life.
3. Chirality in science:
3.1 Math
3.2 Astronomy
3.3 Chemistry
3.4 Biology
3.5 Crystallography
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22. 3.3 Chirality in chemistry
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23. Methane СH4 Methanol СН3ОН Ethanol С2Н5ОН Amyl C5H11OH
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3.3 Chirality in chemistry

24. This is a chiral structure with asymmetric
carbon atom.
And this is a meso-tartaric
acid, it’s symmetrical again.
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3.3 Chirality in chemistry

25. How to define if the molecular
structure are right or left-handed?
Right crystal rotate the plane of
polarization (of polarized light) in a
clockwise.
Left crystal rotate the plane of
polarization in a counter-clockwise.
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3.3 Chirality in chemistry

26. 3.3 Chirality in chemistry
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27. 1. Chirality - WTF?
2. Chirality in everyday life.
3. Chirality in science:
3.1 Math
3.2 Astronomy
3.3 Chemistry
3.4 Biology
3.5 Crystallography
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28. The majority of biological molecules are
chiral.
Мost of the amino acids on Earth are right-
handed, but the most of shugars are left-
handed.
Perhaps, somewhere in the universe there
is life with the left- amino acids and right-
handed sugars.
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3.3 Chirality in Biology
© http://www.astrochem.org/

29. You can sense the chirality, smelling
orange and lemon. Their smells are
chiral molecules.
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3.3 Chirality in Biology
The smell of mint and smell of
caraway are enantiomers too.

30. 1. Chirality - WTF?
2. Chirality in everyday life.
3. Chirality in science:
3.1 Math
3.2 Astronomy
3.3 Chemistry
3.4 Biology
3.5 Crystallography
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31. Symmetry of all existing crystals can
be described by 230 space groups.
Chiral crystals occur in 77 (33%) of
them.
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3.4 Chirality in
Crystallography

32. In some cases crystal structure is
symmetrical, but magnetic structure in
the same crystal is chiral.
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3.4 Chirality in
Crystallography
(с) Dr Andrew S. Wills

33. Conclusion
I showed you only a small part of the
chiral effects in nature.
There are chirality in:
- Elementary particles physics;
- Cosmology;
- Origins of life.
Handedness is a fundamental property
of physical objects and physical laws,
such as size, weight and electric charge.
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